Okay, we do wear masks, but not at home. And Dandie hasn’t agreed to one yet.
How are you holding up? Our hope is you’re healthy, and well, managing the strange times with some sense of peace (mixed with confusion and uncertainty, of course!), and sometimes feeling happy too.
We skipped April; not life, just the events list. And nobody really needed anything extra to think about last month anyway - we didn’t, and I’m pretty sure you didn't either. But even with social distancing and the Stay Home order, there’s still so much life happening around Tacoma that we just had to share some of it with you!
Our home life has included feeling okay, worrying, working, slowing down, pulling weeds, cooking and baking and eating and doing all of that over again, backyard happy hours with cribbage/Yahtzee, backyard golf, journaling, reading, walking the dog, feeling bewildered, feeling happy, missing everyone, planting tomatoes, watching Miss Fisher, the ubiquitous Zoom meetings, FaceTime visits, making cards, and smelling the flowers because it’s spring no matter what! How about you?
If you’re looking for other ways to spend your days, we hope you’ll find something good in our list below. As always, it’s a mix! You’ll find online cooking classes and story times, virtual open mics, farmers’ markets, home yoga, opportunities to give and share, window decorating, scavenger hunts, and creative prompts to get your mind moving in a different way.
We’ve broken our list into 2 parts this month. Part 1 is made up of Scheduled Events, and Part 2 is Stuff You Can Do Anytime. Go head, dig in.
Section 1: Tacoma Scheduled Events - Don’t Miss Them!
Image from Creative Colloquy
1. Cyber Creative Colloquy
Mondays
May 4, 11, 18 & 25
7 pm
From Home
For literary lovers, readers, writers, poets, and people who just really need to see a face, hear a voice, or travel through time with the power of words.
Free
Think of it as a remote open mic: 6 featured readers, dialogue, and Q&A
Join via Zoom from the comfort of your home!
Contact Jackie.D.Fender@gmail.com if you’d like to be a featured reader, or join the Zoom meeting
Image from GiveBIG Washington
2. Give BIG Day
Tuesday & Wednesday
May 5th & 6th
From Home
You may already have a favorite nonprofit (or 2 or 20) you’re eager to give to. If you’re looking for ideas, or just want to see the big picture of organizations working for good all over our city, visit GiveBIG Washington and type Tacoma or your zip code into the search bar for a list of Tacoma nonprofits raising funds.
Image from Tacoma Farmers Market
3. Tacoma Farmers Market: Broadway Market
Thursdays
May 7, 14 21 & 28
10 am - 3 pm
9th & Broadway, Tacoma
Food is essential. Farmers are essential! Keep a list going and make this market visit count. Or, if you want to be spontaneous (a great market strategy since you never know what surprising seasonal produce you might find) just see what strikes your fancy and bring home a cornucopia of green and growing things.
Free entry
Support local farmers and get out into the fresh air
Please wear a face mask and keep your distance
Image from La Paloma Marketplace
4. La Paloma Virtual Market
Thursdays, May 14th & 28th
7 pm
From Home
Are you missing all those Tacoma markets we usually get to choose from and visit, the hustle and bustle and meeting and greeting and shopping and discovering? Well, this can’t bring you all those things, but if you also just really miss supporting local makers, learning more about them, and shopping their wares, this virtual market brings those local creators to the fore.
Free
Join via Facebook
During market time, La Paloma Marketplace will post a series of videos featuring individual artists and crafts people to share about their goods, their process, and how to shop with them
Meet illustrators, print makers, jewelers, candle makers, clothing designers, and all sorts more!
Image from Tacoma Public Library
5. Tacoma Public Library’s Friday Family Storytime
Fridays, May 8, 15, 22 & 29
1 - 1:30 pm
We miss our library! Although the Tacoma Public Library needed to close to keep the community safe, they haven’t left us behind. The library provides all kinds of resources and programs to keep the community educated, entertained, and connected. Visit the Tacoma Public Library online for eBooks, audiobooks, streaming videos, streaming music, eMagazines - all free. And they’re hosting story times every Friday.
Free
Join via Facebook Live from the Tacoma Library’s main Facebook page
Storytime for all ages with a librarian, sounds nice! It’s more than stories, though. There might be songs, or other activities too. Don’t miss it.
One more library tip: follow Tacoma Public Library on Instagram to participate in their Virtual Scavenger Hunt!
Image from Tacoma Rescue Mission
Image from Windermere Abode - that’s our office!
6. Sandwiches for the Tacoma Rescue Mission at Abode
Fridays
May 8, 15, 22 & 29
4:30 pm
Windermere Abode
2200 N 30th St, Tacoma
Looking for another way to get involved, give, and help keep the Tacoma community healthy and fed? Find representatives from our Windermere Abode office every Friday at 4:30 pm ready to transfer your sandwiches to the Tacoma Rescue Mission!
Volunteer & Giving Opportunity
Make sandwiches (tuna or meat are very popular), wrap them up, and meet brokers from Windermere Abode in the back parking lot (along McCarver St). The Abode crew will load their cars and deliver to the Tacoma Rescue Mission where these meals are in high demand!
Sandwiches, apples, or prepackaged snacks are all welcome and we promise to keep our 6 feet of distance when you drop-off :)
If you have questions, just get in touch with us and we can make sure you have the details you need (253) 226-2787, michael@dugganhomes.com
Image from Molly’s Tamales
7. Online Cooking Classes with Molly’s Tamales!
Friday, May 8 & 15
Saturday, May 9 & 16
Sunday, May 17
Thursday, May 21
6 pm or 3 pm, depending on the date
From Home
We’ve attended Molly’s vegetarian tamales class in-person, as well as many of her markets and events, so we absolutely encourage you to give this a try. Molly offers a variety of online cooking classes throughout May. She’ll provide shopping lists ahead of time to make sure you’re all set, and we promise you can afford the class; they’re by donation!
Pay as you can - by donation through Cash App, Venmo, and PayPal
Join the online cooking classes via Zoom - Molly will provide the link and password
Choose from classes like pork tamales, vegetarian tamales, fire cider, stone soup, elderberry syrup, and a wild card class - see the list with all the dates and times for Molly’s May classes here
We’re all eating at home, so it might as well be delicious!
Image from Proctor Farmers’ Market
8. Proctor Farmers’ Market
Saturdays
May 2, 9, 16, 23 & 30
9 am - 2 pm
N 27th & Proctor, Tacoma
The market is back! But it’s not business as usual. Just like when you visit the grocery store, 6 feet of distance is required. Additionally, the market requires facial coverings, using hand sanitizer as you enter and exit, recommends that you restrict shopping to 1 member of your household, and also asks that you allow vendors to handle items for you. We’ll all miss the music, sampling, and strolling through the market with our dog our friends and a smoothie, but those things will all be back soon! For now, service dogs are welcome, and of course you can eat what you buy, just wait until you get home.
Free entry
Support your local farmers and food system
Get essential items in the open air
Smile with your eyes, it’s a nice touch
Section 2: Tacoma Activities You Can Do Anytime
9. Creative Fuel Challenge with Local Artist Anna Brones
Take a little time in your day or week to put pen or pencil or paint or scissor or mind to paper. You’ll find prompts for blind contour drawings, zine creation, public art, postcards, and poems. The Creative Fuel Challenge is a freely offered series of creative prompts (meant to cheer as much as challenge in these odd times) but you can absolutely contribute a financial donation if you’re able. Just visit the donation link at the bottom of the Creative Fuel Challenge page. You can also subscribe to Creative Fuel Challenge e-mails so you always see what’s new. Go ahead. There’s no pressure, no grades, you can’t fail. (Images from annabrones.com)
Image from Yoga Wild
10. Yoga from Home with Tacoma’s Yoga Wild
Yoga Wild is always here for us, offering thoughtful seasonal series, sessions with live music, yoga for kiddos, thoughts on inclusivity, challenging and nurturing workshops, and they’re still here for us, even when we’re all apart. Yoga Wild releases new practices to their YouTube channel every week, so you can roll out the mat at home, whether it’s 5 am, noon, or the middle of the night. Let them help you take care of yourself! These YouTube yoga practices are freely offered, but you can absolutely donate if you’re able and so inclined. Either way, go ahead and hit the subscribe button.
Images from Downtown Tacoma Partnership
11. Rapid Murals Hunt!
Maybe you haven’t left your house in a while. We get it. If you have been out, you might have noticed some new murals popping up around Tacoma. It’s sad to see our small local businesses closing and boarding up windows, but when a local artist transforms those boards into a mural, that’s a beautiful sight to behold. Rapid Murals is a partnership between Spaceworks Tacoma and Downtown Tacoma Partnership. The project sends messages of hope to the community, employs artists, and deters break-ins at small businesses. Next time you’re feeling stir-crazy, or a little bit down and discouraged, take yourself out for mural hunt. See how many new murals you can find around the city. And be sure to note who created the mural, then look them up and give that artist a follow, or send them a message to say you appreciate them! Hint: check out Pacific Avenue downtown and wander from there.
12. Hope Grows Here Window Decoration & Volunteering
Have you noticed paper gardens and messages of hope, encouragement and appreciation growing in people’s windows around Tacoma? These are part of Multicare’s Hope Grows Here campaign and you can be part of it! The whole idea is community solidarity, and an expression of gratitude to healthcare workers and essential, frontline workers of all kinds. Learn about opportunities to volunteer with Multicare’s Hope Grows Here program, and get printable Hope Grows Here coloring pages to get you started with creating your own window garden. (Images from Hope Grows Here)
Image from Washington Trafficking Prevention
13. Engage in Washington Trafficking Prevention’s Virtual Youth Prevention Education Program
Washington Trafficking Prevention is a survivor-led nonprofit located in Tacoma with a mission to “prevent human trafficking in Washington State by equipping the vulnerable and engaging communities.” Now, WTP is offering free virtual prevention courses designed for middle school youth. So far, they’ve created two 30-minute sessions on Building Resilience and Practicing Empathy. Register for the sessions here and visit Washington Trafficking Prevention for more information, opportunities, and virtual events.
Images from Tacoma Art Museum
You may not be able to stroll through the Tacoma Art Museum with your best artsy outfit on, followed by a lunch date downtown, but you can still view the TAM’s art collections (and nobody’s stopping you if you want to get dressed up; go head, pull on those breezy linen trousers and your silk scarf). Tour the TAM’s collections here, or go straight to their gallery of over 300 photographs from the 1890s to the present. You might even feel like you left the house. You could also visit TAM’s Object of the Week blog to delve into one image at time, if that’s more your pace.
15. Send Snail Mail
This is a favorite of mine. I like the process start to finish from choosing a card, or creating one (cutting the paper to size, folding the card, painting an image, writing a message, sealing it up, selecting a stamp, adding the address, and setting it out for the postal service). If you have scraps of paper around the houses, stashes giant or small, try making a card to send. If you’re out of supplies, or just not in the mood to DIY, consider ordering stationary from a Tacoma artist like Katie Dean, the Arts & Crafts Press, or from Tacoma’s fine curator or greeting cards, Paper Luxe. You miss your friends and family, they miss you, so choose one or two each week, make a few moments of their day better because you thought of them!
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